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Has anyone seen yard signs to support “Black Lives Matter” (or similar) sold *by* an organization that is affiliated with social justice goals? I suppose they are all sold out (yay), and clearly the market has responded because Etsy is overwhelmed with signs and random printing on demand organizations do offer signs.
I did find some lists of black owned businesses in North Carolina, but i didn’t see services that i use. I did choose a black owned painter last summer, intentionally. Our roofers were Lumbee (although that was at my Dad’s recommendation, not an effort to support minority owned businesses).
We are going to need some contractors soon: someone to do front steps to create a less steep and treacherous grade, then someone (perhaps the same) to help with redoing our garage into a work space and a wheelchair friendly entrance from the garage into the kitchen. Currently there’s a cramped entrance from garage to kitchen: that will not do for wheelchair access. We’d need to put a door through another section of wall to an area open enough for a ramp. The existing door could remain as a utility entrance. And a tool shed! Currently a great deal of the garage is taken by mowers and chippers and wheel barrows and garden pots. It’s hard to move around while all that’s crammed in the garage along with the not yet unpacked stuff.
--== ∞ ==--
Deer are now wandering around during daylight. Earlier this week a fawn was in the garden, paniced by the fence, and managed to bust loose before i made it to them. I haven't really permanently attched half the fence and that made it easy for the deer to get out. Of the permanent section, a corner T-pole now needs some serious bracing. I couldn't find any sign of damage from the fawn even in the wet soil.
Yesterday [Wednesday?] deer were back at the salt lick just beyond the back corner of the back yard/orchard. I found Christine at the window, watching Marlowe stalk the deer, and the deer keeping a wary eye on the six pound grey cat. The deer have nibbled on anything and everything tender (except sweetgum sprouts coming up from last winter's stumps). Zinna, yarrow, kale, collards all have the tops nibbled off. They pulled up two of the chicory -- which apparently hadn't really rooted deeply yet -- and left them to wilt. More disappointing is the nibbling of the sprawling tromboncino squash: not just the tender leading shoots but also some of the tender squash. Fie. Soon, the tender edge perimeter will be far enough away from the older leaves and -- i hope -- fruit will set where the deer won't bother. I look forward to some tromboncino to eat like summer squash, but also letting them reach winter squash ripeness. They're a variety of the same species as butternut.
Inside the fenced garden plot the chicory seem to have settled in. Rabbits, i presume, have eaten the tops of the Batavian lettuce. The potted sweet potato shoots are looking quite well and one shoot that i had poked in the ground near the sunchokes has also recovered from looking near death. Dahlias overwintered and are about to bloom: i grow these ornamental varieties as i ponder trying to grow dahlias for the tubers. This winter was so mild that it does not indicate anything about sustainability.
Huckleberry gold potatoes are blooming -- that, or some other potato i had planted in that spot a few years ago (a fingerling). The earlier potatoes still haven't bloomed. Corn and okra are still short, still dealing with transplant shock, i suspect, but also looking quite healthy. Basil is just beginning to look like it's going to start growing. The ground cherry i put out the earliest has a nice crop of paper lanterns hanging and the mouse melon has one tiny fruit. I am hopeful that these less common and less finicky plants provide well this summer. Tomatoes look promising, peppers do too. I stare at the garden: potatoes in that mystery state of plants but who knows whether there are tubers or not. Sunchokes thriving, the Cherokee sochan thriving. Walking onions and gladiolas are thick and i plan to recover that bed from them to plant things deer eat. I'll move the glads to the orchard (or give them away) and the onions where deer and rabbits nibble -- but ignore alliums. Everything else looks ... hesitant. Promising, but hesitant.
I'm not sure what i was thinking about "strawberry spinach." I think it must have been winter temptations from Baker Seeds: i don't think the plant is really going to do well here. The scarlet runners are twining up the orchard fence but seem so feeble, another Baker seed choice that would probably prefer a much more northern climate.
I did find some lists of black owned businesses in North Carolina, but i didn’t see services that i use. I did choose a black owned painter last summer, intentionally. Our roofers were Lumbee (although that was at my Dad’s recommendation, not an effort to support minority owned businesses).
We are going to need some contractors soon: someone to do front steps to create a less steep and treacherous grade, then someone (perhaps the same) to help with redoing our garage into a work space and a wheelchair friendly entrance from the garage into the kitchen. Currently there’s a cramped entrance from garage to kitchen: that will not do for wheelchair access. We’d need to put a door through another section of wall to an area open enough for a ramp. The existing door could remain as a utility entrance. And a tool shed! Currently a great deal of the garage is taken by mowers and chippers and wheel barrows and garden pots. It’s hard to move around while all that’s crammed in the garage along with the not yet unpacked stuff.
--== ∞ ==--
Deer are now wandering around during daylight. Earlier this week a fawn was in the garden, paniced by the fence, and managed to bust loose before i made it to them. I haven't really permanently attched half the fence and that made it easy for the deer to get out. Of the permanent section, a corner T-pole now needs some serious bracing. I couldn't find any sign of damage from the fawn even in the wet soil.
Yesterday [Wednesday?] deer were back at the salt lick just beyond the back corner of the back yard/orchard. I found Christine at the window, watching Marlowe stalk the deer, and the deer keeping a wary eye on the six pound grey cat. The deer have nibbled on anything and everything tender (except sweetgum sprouts coming up from last winter's stumps). Zinna, yarrow, kale, collards all have the tops nibbled off. They pulled up two of the chicory -- which apparently hadn't really rooted deeply yet -- and left them to wilt. More disappointing is the nibbling of the sprawling tromboncino squash: not just the tender leading shoots but also some of the tender squash. Fie. Soon, the tender edge perimeter will be far enough away from the older leaves and -- i hope -- fruit will set where the deer won't bother. I look forward to some tromboncino to eat like summer squash, but also letting them reach winter squash ripeness. They're a variety of the same species as butternut.
Inside the fenced garden plot the chicory seem to have settled in. Rabbits, i presume, have eaten the tops of the Batavian lettuce. The potted sweet potato shoots are looking quite well and one shoot that i had poked in the ground near the sunchokes has also recovered from looking near death. Dahlias overwintered and are about to bloom: i grow these ornamental varieties as i ponder trying to grow dahlias for the tubers. This winter was so mild that it does not indicate anything about sustainability.
Huckleberry gold potatoes are blooming -- that, or some other potato i had planted in that spot a few years ago (a fingerling). The earlier potatoes still haven't bloomed. Corn and okra are still short, still dealing with transplant shock, i suspect, but also looking quite healthy. Basil is just beginning to look like it's going to start growing. The ground cherry i put out the earliest has a nice crop of paper lanterns hanging and the mouse melon has one tiny fruit. I am hopeful that these less common and less finicky plants provide well this summer. Tomatoes look promising, peppers do too. I stare at the garden: potatoes in that mystery state of plants but who knows whether there are tubers or not. Sunchokes thriving, the Cherokee sochan thriving. Walking onions and gladiolas are thick and i plan to recover that bed from them to plant things deer eat. I'll move the glads to the orchard (or give them away) and the onions where deer and rabbits nibble -- but ignore alliums. Everything else looks ... hesitant. Promising, but hesitant.
I'm not sure what i was thinking about "strawberry spinach." I think it must have been winter temptations from Baker Seeds: i don't think the plant is really going to do well here. The scarlet runners are twining up the orchard fence but seem so feeble, another Baker seed choice that would probably prefer a much more northern climate.